Investigation of Student Attitudes and Opinions in Regards to Time Capsule Use in Social Studies Course

Abstract

Time capsule which is used in education intends to help people understand how the capsule's contents and how much they and their surroundings have changed during the time of its close. The use of time capsules is important in acquiring the achievements related to the "time, continuity and change" learning strand in primary school social studies curriculum. In this respect, this study was carried out in a secondary school located in the province of Ordu and the time capsule which was prepared with 21 students and closed in 2015 was opened in 2016. Using the mixed research design generally, in the first phase of the study, the attitude scale of the "social studies" course was applied as pretest and posttest to determine the effect of the time capsule application on the students' attitudes towards the course. In the qualitative part of the study, students' thoughts about the time capsule application were recorded with the first and second interview forms performed before and after the application. The obtained data were subjected to content analysis, one of the qualitative analysis methods. As a result of the research, it was seen that the application of "Time capsule" contributed positively to the perception of the students' historical viewpoints and "time, continuity and change".